Back-to-Back-to-Back Men’s & Women’s NCAA Champions (2011, 2010, 2009) at Texas A & M have achieved such success because of coaches like Vince Anderson. The philosophy for hurdlers is that they are SPRINTERS FIRST! He recommends that you should have the same number of days concentrating on speed development as you do on hurdle technique. However, to be realistic, hurdling does require timing and skill development all its own. A hurdler has a limited amount of space and time to continue to build or maintain speed. In order to develop the skill of quickly building speed, Coach Anderson uses two “Frequency Drills.”

The first is a “Dribble Run”. In this drill, the athlete will increase the tempo of their step in three segments, of about 10 meters apiece. The first segment, the athlete will “Step over their calf” as quickly as possible. The second segment , the athlete will “Step over their crew sock”, increasing the tempo, and in the third segment, they will “Step over their ankle”. This increases the tempo and quickness of the workout progressively.

The second exercise is a “Fast Leg Drill”, where the athlete will work on accelerating. Again, using three segments, the athlete starts out with a 4’ stride length, then goes to 4’3, then to 4’6 in our example. The exercise could begin with 18 strides, and move as far out as 21 strides. The developmental level of your athletes will determine how far your athletes will want to go as they begin this drill. The main point of the exercise is to work quickness of the feet while accelerating.